Jonathan Bobea has pitched better games against better competition with more on the line.
There were no major league scouts – a routine occurrence this spring – and very little expectations when he beat Cardozo, 3-1, April 30, 2008, becoming the first Patriots pitcher to do so in seven seasons.
Bobea allowed just a single hit and walked three in the complete-game gem, but he hardly remembers any pitch sequence or any of his 11 strikeouts.
He will, however, remember the postgame chat with his new coach, Ian Millman, forever.
“That’s how you’re supposed to pitch,” Millman said then. “You see why you got to start listening to me? Just trust me and believe in me, because I believe in you.”
Those last four words – “I believe in you” – stuck with Bobea.
No other coach, except for his father, Luis, had ever said that to him with such conviction. As a freshman at Francis Lewis he was put into the closer’s role. Everywhere else, he was told he was too small, couldn’t do this, couldn’t do that.
Millman, a former professional pitcher who played baseball at Queens College, who had coached plenty of draft picks and seen the best, was there, in his corner. Bobea hasn’t stopped working since, motivated by his coach’s belief.
“It made me believe in myself,” he said. “He put me against any team, no matter how good they were.”
He led Lewis to the second round of the PSAL Class A playoffs the last two years, nearly beating powerhouse George Washington this postseason (he allowed one unearned run), and is expected to be the second New York City player taken in this week’s MLB First-Year Player’s Draft.
He credits Millman with that development.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for Mr. Millman. He turned my life around that sophomore year,” he said. “I never thought I would be in this position.”
Luis Bobea coached his son from the age of 8 up until he was 14. He instantly saw a change once he learned under Millman’s tutelage. It wasn’t so much the added miles per hour to his fastball or torque on his slider.
“He prepared him mentally,” Luis Bobea said. “He started building up his confidence.”
As a junior, Bobea lost one game, but it was a memorable one, a 3-2 setback to Newtown, the eventual Queens A Mid-West champion. He worked eight innings, struck out an incredible 21 batters and allowed just a single hit and two unearned runs.
“That was a feat,” Newtown coach Neil Rosenblatt recalled. “We had a very, very good hitting team.”
A Francis Lewis grad, Millman has coached summer baseball for a decade before landing at his alma mater in Fresh Meadows, Queens three years ago. He has coached such Double-A minor leaguers as Carlos Guzman of the New York Mets and Tom Koehler of the Florida Marlins. Ethan Liederman, a sophomore at the University of Minnesota, credits Millman with his development.
“I owe a lot to Ian,” he said. “It’s his knowledge of the game. He’s seen it all. He understands what it takes.”
Millman, an associate scout with the Anaheim Angels, defers the credit to his pupil. He inherited a pitcher with a big arm and he molded that arm, Millman said. They slowed Bobea’s motion down, loosened his arm action, and had him incorporate his strong lower body more, instead of it being all-arm. The one constant was Bobea’s work ethic, the first one at practice and last to leave, the one leading pre-game exercises and prodding fellow pitchers into running extra laps, doing long toss when maybe his arm needed a break.
“Jonathan would work himself to death if someone didn’t stand around and guide him,” Millman said. “He’ll do whatever it takes to become the best he can be.”
At this point, that’s a pitcher with plenty of potential. Although he stands just 6 feet and 180 pounds, Bobea throws in the upper 80s to low 90s. He hit 93 mph in the loss to George Washington and is blessed with well-above-average movement and an improving slider. The last two years, he has compiled a cumulative 13-2 record, with 179 strikeouts in 87 1/3 innings pitched and a mere 23 walks.
“With tremendous hard work and staying healthy, I can potentially see Jonathan throwing in the sixth or seven inning in a major league ballpark,” Millman said.
Bobea could also go to college if he doesn’t sign with the organization that drafts him. He has received interest from St. John’s, Hofstra and Austin Peay, in addition to several notable junior colleges in Texas and Florida.
Not all scouts are so high on the 18-year-old Flushing native. One American League scout said he didn’t even write up a report on Bobea because “there’s limited projection for me.” A National League scout considered him an “undersized fringe prospect.”
Of course, neither scout was at George Washington May 28 when Bobea rendered one of the best hitting teams in the city – a team that was nationally ranked for many years and has the area’s top prospect in Mike Antonio – helpless.
“He has tremendous upside,” GW coach Steve Mandl said.
Millman heard doubts when he was younger, too. Nobody thought he would ever make it to professional baseball of any kind. Opposing coaches, players, and fans have taunted Bobea because of his size. In that way they are similar, except Millman made sure to point out “God has given him way better gifts.”
“A lot of people have made it very, very easy for this kid to find tons of motivation,” he said. “He’s not the biggest, he’s not the fastest, but he does work the hardest. That’s helped him overcome obstacles up to this point and it will continue to help him overcome obstacles in his next step.”
Wherever that is, Bobea will keep Millman with him. He will recite his two favorites quotes: “Stay calm, make good decisions,” and “in the end, it works out, it always does.”
“His words,” Bobea said, “will always stay with me.”